Aibileen takes a job caring for toddler Mae Mobley at the Leefolt household after her son Treelore dies in a workplace accident.

Hilly Holbrook announces her Home Help Sanitation Initiative, demanding white households build separate bathrooms for their Black domestic workers.

Skeeter pitches her maid interview book idea to editor Elaine Stein, falsely claiming she already has a maid who has agreed to participate.

Skeeter visits Aibileen at home and proposes writing a book of interviews about what it is like to work for white Jackson families.

Aibileen refuses Skeeter's book proposal, saying that participating would be like burning her own house down.

Aibileen calls Skeeter to say she has changed her mind about the book, telling her that Miss Hilly is the reason.

Minny agrees to be interviewed for the book but sets strict conditions and challenges Skeeter's motives directly.

Elaine Stein calls Skeeter and urges her to finish the manuscript quickly before the civil rights movement loses public momentum.

Hilly's maid Yule May is arrested after stealing a ring from Hilly to pay for her sons' college tuition.

After Aibileen's church community raises money to send Yule May's sons to college, eleven maids volunteer to share their stories.

Skeeter's deliberate typo in the League newsletter sends dozens of donated toilets to Hilly Holbrook's front lawn.

Skeeter learns the truth from Aibileen's written account and her own mother about why Constantine was fired and that she later died.

Harper and Row agrees to publish the book, offering a small advance to be divided equally among the thirteen participants.

Skeeter accepts a writing job offer from a New York magazine and decides to leave Jackson behind.

Hilly accuses Aibileen of stealing silver and has her fired, but Aibileen's knowledge of the pie story prevents criminal charges.

The Help follows Aibileen Clark, a Black maid in Jackson, Mississippi, who eventually agrees to help an aspiring white writer named Skeeter Phelan interview maids about their working lives. Despite the enormous danger of speaking out in the Jim Crow South, Aibileen and her friend Minny Jackson join the project, and their bravery slowly inspires a wider circle of women to participate. As the manuscript takes shape, Skeeter loses friends and social standing, while the cruel arrest of Hilly's maid Yule May galvanizes even more women to come forward. The completed book is quietly published, and its release sends shockwaves through Jackson's white community, exposing the racism hidden behind polished doors. In the aftermath, Hilly turns on Aibileen and has her fired, though Aibileen's knowledge of the pie story prevents criminal charges. Skeeter, transformed by the entire experience, leaves Jackson behind to start a writing career in New York.

The headline events that drive the story from beginning to end.

Minny is fired from Mrs. Walters's household after Hilly arranges for her elderly mother to be moved to a nursing home.

Aibileen secretly arranges for Minny to be hired by Celia Foote by pretending the recommendation comes from Elizabeth Leefolt.

Skeeter accepts a job writing the Miss Myrna household cleaning advice column at the local Jackson Journal newspaper.

Aibileen reveals to Skeeter that Constantine was fired by the Phelan family, directly contradicting what Skeeter's mother told her.

Louvenia's grandson Robert is beaten with a tire iron by white men for using a whites-only public bathroom.

Skeeter's blind date with Stuart Whitworth ends poorly when he spends the evening drunk and barely acknowledges her.

Johnny Foote comes home unexpectedly and discovers Minny working in his house, but responds with warmth and gratitude rather than anger.

The first interview attempt collapses when Aibileen becomes too frightened and runs from the room to vomit.

Aibileen and Skeeter establish a working system where Aibileen reads her written stories aloud while Skeeter types them up.

Medgar Evers, the NAACP field secretary, is shot dead outside his home, deepening Minny and Aibileen's fear for the book project.

Celia Foote arrives uninvited at Elizabeth Leefolt's bridge club and accidentally mentions that Minny works for her.

Celia beats a naked intruder unconscious with a fire poker after he punches Minny to the ground outside her home.

The annual League Benefit ends in chaos when Celia vomits on Hilly and Mrs. Walters admits she signed Hilly up for Minny's pie.

Stuart proposes to Skeeter at a special dinner, then walks out after she reveals she has been writing a book about Jackson's maids.

Leroy threatens to burn the house down with Minny inside after learning of her involvement in the book, and Minny flees with her children.

Behind the main narrative of the book project, The Help is built from dozens of smaller moments that reveal character and build tension. Minny's firing, her secret placement with the eccentric Celia Foote, and Skeeter's awkward foray into writing a cleaning column all set the stage for what follows. The brutal beating of Robert and the assassination of Medgar Evers steadily deepen the sense of real danger facing everyone involved in the book. Meanwhile, Celia Foote's social disasters, her rescue of Minny from a violent intruder, and the chaotic night of the annual Benefit reveal a warm outsider whose friendship quietly subverts Jackson's racial lines. Romance and violence collide near the end as Stuart's proposal collapses over Skeeter's secret and Minny is finally forced to flee her abusive husband Leroy for good.

The supporting events and relationships that give the story its texture.

Skeeter returns home after college graduation to find that Constantine, the maid who raised her, has vanished without explanation.

Elaine Stein writes to Skeeter advising her to write only about things that genuinely disturb her, particularly if nobody else cares.

Elizabeth Leefolt spanks Mae Mobley across the legs for climbing onto Aibileen's segregated carport toilet, calling it a disease risk.

Aibileen describes the book idea to Minny as dangerous and absurd, using reverse psychology to spark Minny's desire to participate.

Skeeter steals a booklet of Jim Crow Laws from the library and then accidentally leaves her satchel of interview notes at Hilly's house.

Aibileen tells Hilly directly, in front of Mae Mobley, that she would want Black and white students to learn in school together.

Minny discovers that Celia has suffered multiple miscarriages and has been hiding every one of them from her husband Johnny.

Yule May writes to Skeeter from prison, explaining that Hilly's cruelty over the stolen ring cost both her sons a college education.

Aibileen watches Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his 'I Have a Dream' speech on television and reflects on how little Jackson has changed.

Minny confesses to Celia that she baked her own feces into the chocolate pie she once served to Hilly, revealing the Terrible Awful.

Aibileen's written account reveals that Constantine gave up her light-skinned daughter Lulabelle as a young child and spent years regretting it.

Skeeter's mother confesses to firing Constantine after Lulabelle spat in her face at a social gathering and told a cruel lie that separated them forever.

A doctor tells Skeeter that her mother has advanced stomach cancer and has been concealing the diagnosis for two months.

Hilly reaches the pie chapter while reading the book and begins frantically insisting to everyone that the story is not set in Jackson.

Aibileen walks away from the Leefolt house for the last time, heartbroken to leave Mae Mobley but feeling an unexpected sense of freedom.

The Help is propelled forward by a series of revelations and turning points that quietly reshape every character's understanding of the world around them. Skeeter's search for the truth about Constantine haunts the novel from its opening pages, while moments like the Jim Crow booklet incident expose just how far her transformation has gone. Aibileen's small acts of resistance — talking back to Hilly, telling Mae Mobley stories of equality — show a woman steadily finding her voice under dangerous conditions. Celia's hidden miscarriages, Yule May's letter from prison, and the full story of Constantine's dismissal all drag painful secrets into the light where they can no longer be ignored. As the book nears publication, Minny's act of defiance becomes the project's greatest insurance policy, and Hilly's panicked effort to convince Jackson the book is fiction signals that the balance of power is shifting at last.